


What Goes Around With You

by epicionly



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Family Reunion, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21728530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epicionly/pseuds/epicionly
Summary: “We’re going back,” Bones says as soon as the signs come into view. When Jim makes no move to stop or reverse the hovercar, Bonesactuallyunbuckles his seat belt and tries the door. “Let me out of the car, Jim.”
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Comments: 4
Kudos: 61





	What Goes Around With You

“We’re going back,” Bones says as soon as the signs come into view. When Jim makes no move to stop or reverse the hovercar, Bones _actually_ unbuckles his seat belt and tries the door. “Let me out of the car, Jim.”

“No,” Jim says snobbily, finger still pressed on the lock button, eyes forward. God, it’d be ironic if one of those Robocops decided to pull him over the one day when Jim was trying to drive like a normal person.

“Just stop the car somewhere. I need air, at least.”

Being that it’s coming from Bones and not Jim: “I’m pretty sure you’d find some way to jump out.”

“Jumping out of moving vehicles is _your_ habit, not mine,” Bones snaps. He’s still eyeing the scenery on the side when Jim sneaks a quick side-glance, so Jim’s not taking any chances.

“Uh huh.”

“Jim, you get on a shoulder of the highway and open this door right now.”

“Don’t want to,” Jim says. Just in case, though, he lowers the window a smudge.

Bones gives a noise of frustration.

As Jim winds past the curve of the highway and the scenery Georgia is known for, he hears the angry click of the seat belt and the heavy sound of a body sinking into the leather.

“Don’t be like that, Bones,” Jim tells the harassed man beside him. “C’mon, what’s so bad about seeing your ex again? I mean,” he tries to sound casual and not sleazy, or sound like he’s bragging, “this time actually wearing clothes.” He glances over again just in time to see Bones running a hand over his eyes.

“It’s not about that.”

“Uh huh,” Jim deadpans, eyes back on the road. “So it _is_ about your kid.”

In the rear-view mirror, Bones pinches the bridge of his nose. “ _Jim._ ”

“ _Leonard_ ,” Jim mimics, in a high-pitched tone.

“You’re three years old.”

“Me? _You’re_ the one that sounds like he’s three, always complaining,” Jim says. He lowers his voice to mimic the low, growly tones. “‘ _Dammit,_ Jim, you know what’s going to wait for us there? Hell and brimstone. Teenagers. My ex-wife.’”

“I’m six years older than you. That ought to deserve some respect here.”

“I’m just trying to understand you, okay?” Jim demands, feeling weirdly cornered about his own motives. His hands are tightening on the steering wheel. “I don’t get why this is such a big deal for you when it doesn’t need to be.”

“What do you understand so far?” Bones asks. He sounds tired. He sounds like he needs sleep. Space lag—poor Bones.

“You think too much,” Jim responds cheerily. “And no superseding the child safety lock for you. You might as well nap.”

There’s a heightened tension before Bones’s shoulders slump out of the corner of Jim’s eye. “I can’t go there, Jim.”

“Yes, you can,” Jim says, using the voice he knows Bones will interpret as I Do Whatever I Want So You Might As Well. “We’re going to go, and have a great time. I even brought a present for Joanna that’s got a melting point. We can’t go back now.”

“You can send her another ice cream cake.” Bones seems to deflate in the passenger seat. “I can’t take this, Jim,” he admits in a rare show of exhaustion, when it shows he actually doesn’t have it all together, that he worries about his relationship with his family. “It’s been five years. So many things will have changed.”

“Bones, this is your daughter we’re talking about here. Cute kid with the big cheeks who wrote an essay when she was six that she wanted to be you when she grew up. You have a holopic permanently on in your office. You sent a message to say you were coming. You don’t even know that she doesn’t want to see you. So are you really going to leave her hanging?”

Bones doesn’t answer.

“Bones.”

“She’s going to end up with diabetes,” Bones says, as a weak argument, but then again, he’s been on a health kick about Jim’s diet for a couple of months now.

“Don’t do that. That’s my tactic. And you know it, Bones. She’s going to end up _happy,_ ” Jim drums his fingers on the steering wheel, “because she’ll get to see her dad.”

Bones points one threatening finger at him that almost jabs his cheek. “If you so much as try that placating tone of yours again, I swear—”

“Bones, _Bones_.” Jim bypasses the finger and curls his hand around Bones’s hand. He shoots him the biggest grin.

There seems to be some sort of law of cause and effect in which when Jim grins, Bones frowns, and boy, is Bones frowning right now. He is frowning so hard they may as well be a permanent furrow in between his brows. Jim wouldn’t lie: he wants to reach out and smooth it out.

“Eyes on the road, Jim,” Bones says sharply.

Jim laughs, and does, hand squeezing. “Bones, just stop thinking about it,” he says. “That’s an order.”

Bones doesn’t answer. 

“Come on,” Jim continues, “your kid _loves_ me. And she’ll love you. She’ll always love you.” _I love you_ , he avoids saying, because that’s something a little too raw, a little too close. 

It’s kind of backwards, what it is right now. Jim being the one to reassure, care, ground.

But it seems to work, because even if the expression on Bones’s face doesn’t change out of the corner of Jim’s eye, his hand squeezes right back.

**Author's Note:**

> Initially written on Feb 6, 2016 on tumblr.


End file.
